Eden, the American town where Mark and Martin purchase land, is an allusion to the Garden of Eden in the Old Testament. In the account in the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve live in Eden until they eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and are afterwards banished from Eden for their disobedience. In Martin Chuzzlewit, Eden symbolizes fraud and self-delusion, but also new life.

At first, Eden represents the promise of the “Land of Liberty” for Martin, who has only ever heard of people buying land and making a fortune in America. The way Agent Scadder talks about the town makes it sound, as its name implies, like a paradise. However, upon arrival, Martin learns that Eden was a fraud that never existed. Through Eden, Dickens comments on American hypocrisy and how the freedom Americans boast of could be used to take advantage of others, as Scadder did with the people who bought land in Eden. Dickens also uses Eden to comment on the consequences of fortune-hunting, something he criticizes throughout the novel. Martin’s intentions for going to America and buying land were only so he could get money, which symbolizes the root of all evil, so Martin must suffer the consequences of his actions and experience the evils of Eden in return.

However, as in the bible, Eden also symbolizes new life, as this is the place where Martin’s character is essentially reborn. The prolonged illness Mark nurses him through while in Eden makes Martin reconsider his character and how selfish he has been, turning him into a new person.